éclair

/\e.klɛʁ\/ noun

Letters

6 characters

Frequency Rank

#8,324

in French word usage

Misspellings

9

tracked variants

Confusables

11

similar word pairs

éclair is aFrenchnoun. It means: Lumière vive et soudaine causée par la foudre, qui brille entre les nuages et qui précède le bruit du tonnerre lors d'un orage. Pronounced \e.klɛʁ\. It ranks #8,324 in French word frequency. Often confused with éclat and éclate.

Key facts for éclair
PropertyValue
Headwordéclair
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\e.klɛʁ\
Letters6
Frequency rank#8,324
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs11
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of éclair in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for éclair is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \e.klɛʁ\. Corpus data places it at rank #8,324 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 9 documented wrong-spelling variants for éclair, with forms such as "célair", "eclair", and "écalir". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 11 confusable-pair relationships, "éclat", "éclate", "éclats", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is éclair, spelled É-C-L-A-I-R, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Lumière vive et soudaine causée par la foudre, qui brille entre les nuages et qui précède le bruit du tonnerre lors d'un orage.
  2. 2
    Tout éclat de lumière étincelante et mobile qui paraît à la surface des objets.
  3. 3
    Éclat fugace.
  4. 4
    Manifestation brusque et rapide.
  5. 5
    Pâtisserie en longueur, faite d’une pâte à choux, glacée sur le dessus, et fourrée de crème pâtissière à l'intérieur.
  6. 6
    Synonyme de anomie pelure (espèce d’animaux).

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: célair,eclair,écalir,écclair,éclairr,éclari,écliar,écllair,élcair

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for éclair

Misspelling Variants of "éclair"

célair6eclair6écalir6écclair7éclairr7éclari6écliar6écllair7
Misspelling Variants of "éclair"

Frequency rank: #8,324 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "éclair"?
"éclair" is spelled É-C-L-A-I-R. The IPA pronunciation is \e.klɛʁ\.
What does "éclair" mean?
As a noun, "éclair" means: Lumière vive et soudaine causée par la foudre, qui brille entre les nuages et qui précède le bruit du tonnerre lors d'un orage.
What words are commonly confused with "éclair"?
"éclair" is commonly confused with "éclat", "éclate", "éclats". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "éclair"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "éclair" is \e.klɛʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "éclair" come from?
"éclair" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter É in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.